
Saturday, September 6, 2008
How Could I Resist? Rummage Sale Yarn

Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Does Yarn Expire?

This is really old yarn! It's wool, and one of the balls still has a little tag attached that reads, "Nun's Nomotta yarns are permanently mothproof." Honestly, this tag looks like it was printed in the '30s. I can't get a good picture of the tag, but the little logo is very art deco, and I googled the Nun's yarn company, and only came up with a 1933 pattern book from Nun's being sold on eBay.
But the colors are still really vibrant, and the yarn is tightly wound and knits up with great stitch definition. I really examined it carefully, being afraid of bugs, but it was in a plastic bag and seems in good condition. It is somewhere between sport weight and fingering weight. Socks? I'm there! even though all-wool socks are a pain to care for. The dark looking ball is sort of an eggplant color, and goes great with both the other colors.
It's a little scratchy when knit, but I went to a #2 needle and it felt better. Anyone have a better idea?
I apologize for this picture. The label reads "Reynold's Paloma 100% cotton boucle." I found seven skeins in the bottom of the thread bag. Again, the yarn is long-gone, and Reynolds now uses this name for an entirely different yarn. It's sport weight, and the boucle slubs are tiny. The ballband tells very little---no yardage. With a magnifying glass, I managed to see a very small "1 oz." stamped in blue on the back. The yarn is wrapped around a plastic core. Any ideas what I can do with 7 oz.? It'e enough for a baby sweater, I guess. It would be a hard yarn to mix with another.
Haven't ballbands changed? Now you get the fibre content, suggested needle and gauge, yards and metres, washing instructions, country of origin, and, often, a pattern.